Harare/Johannesburg - The government of Zimbabwe on Monday deployed heavily-armed riot police in Harare amid fears that a deepening economic crisis might see people protesting in the streets.

Armoured cars and water cannons patrolled the capital while some stayed put at a park opposite the parliament building where opposition and civil organizations and soldiers have held regular protests.

Police have been called on several occasions to break up protests over the economic and humanitarian crisis that has left more than five million of the estimated 13 million population dependent on humanitarian aid.

Commenting on the deployment, Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said: "I think it will be unfair to reveal to the press issues of security. But there is nothing to fear."

Deep anger is brewing in Zimbabwe - the once prosperous country that has been reduced to one of the worst performing nations in the world.

Unemployment is at more than 80 per cent and inflation reached a worldwide record of an estimated 231 million per cent in mid-2008, and now runs into the billions.

Many local traders refuse to accept increasingly worthless Zimbabwe dollars, preferring foreign currency, for the goods they say they have to import.

Critics of President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader for 28 years since independence from Britain in 1980, blame his economic policies for the crisis.

The embattled 84-year-old leader accuses the Western powers - especially those that oppose his controversial land restitution programme that saw land seized from white commercial farmers - of sabotaging Zimbabwe's economy.

Mugabe was back in the country on Monday following a brief holiday abroad, state media reported.

The Herald newspaper quoted a presidential spokesman as saying Mugabe was back from the Far East but "still on leave" and Vice President Joice Mujuru was acting president.

Mugabe drew criticism for taking his traditional annual month's leave despite the failure to implement a deal for power-sharing with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Media reports in neighbouring South Africa on the weekend said Mugabe was on vacation in Malaysia, along with his wife and their four children.

Grace Mugabe had reportedly organized a transfer of 92,000 dollars from Zimbabwe's central bank before she took the children to Malaysia before Christmas. (dpa)